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Public schools in Ohio have until April 1 to submit a plan to the state for dealing with 鈥渓earning loss鈥� caused by the pandemic.

The pandemic鈥檚 influence on K-12 academic progress have been substantive, especially for districts in lower-income communities that have had to stay remote for nearly a year under the threat of the coronavirus. 

East Cleveland City Schools CEO Henry Pettiegrew made the difficult decision to bring many of the students back into the classroom as part of a hybrid model in January because he was worried about students falling too far off-track. Students performing to certain academic standards had the option to say fully remote. 

Pettiegrew said since last spring, when the district first went fully remote under Gov. Mike DeWine鈥檚 orders, 鈥渋t鈥檚 been tough, just to find kids, and make sure they鈥檙e OK.鈥�

鈥淵ou鈥檒l see a student that鈥檚 on fire in a classroom and then they鈥檒l disappear, and then they鈥檒l come back in a couple of weeks because things at home changed or they had to make some adjustments,鈥� Pettiegrew told ideastream.

And for some of East Cleveland鈥檚 upperclassmen, Pettiegrew said school was competing with another big distraction.

鈥淲ork is one of those things where now students know, especially high school, 鈥業'm remote, so I can go to work and my boss can give me all those hours they couldn鈥檛 give me when I was in school,鈥欌�� Pettiegrew said.  鈥淪o, then you're competing against a paycheck as well, trying to educate students. It鈥檚 tough.鈥�

Such pandemic-related issues are compounding the ones the school district already had before the virus. East Cleveland is one of the poorest cities in the country, with an average household income of roughly $20,000 dollars, according to U.S. Census figures. And the school district, deemed 鈥榓cademically distressed,鈥� is under state control. A survey conducted by the school system last spring found more than six out of 10 students had no internet access at home. 

鈥淚n my district, where students are beginning at the lowest levels of proficiency, the pandemic made it just even worse to dig them deeper and deeper into the hole,鈥� Pettiegrew said. 鈥淪o we are already trying to plan ways to how many children do we have to help pull out of this pit of the pandemic?鈥�

Computer science teacher Shanti Coaston said that although she had some safety concerns about students and staff returning to in-person learning, shifting to a hybrid learning model was a better option than staying fully remote.

鈥淚t was very difficult, especially building relationships with students you did not know,鈥� Coaston said. 鈥淭he students that I've had in previous years, it was very easy. They knew how the system worked. But the biggest thing was, you know, finding those kids, getting them logged on and being ready to go and learning the system. And so it was a lot of individual reaching out, contacting parents.鈥�

Building relationships with students is a lot easier teaching in-person, according to computer science teacher Shanti Coaston. [Jenny Hamel / ideastream]

During one Friday afternoon class, Coaston went over what Ethernet cables and other network devices are with a small group of high school juniors. Coaston put an infographic on a screen so the students could connect what she鈥檚 describing with a visual.

One student, 17-year-old Tavareon Sanders, like most kids at Shaw High School, has been going to school in-person two days a week as part of a hybrid model since mid-January. Sanders said being fully remote since last spring was tough for him.

鈥淲hen we were in school, my grades were good. And then when the pandemic came, I was struggling with all the work and stuff,鈥� Sanders said. 鈥淚t was harder for me to stay focused in front of a monitor for so many hours. I can't do that. I've got to be, like, in person. So, I can get help from the teachers and stuff like that.鈥�

Shaw High School junior Tavareon Sanders said when the district was fully remote, 鈥渋t was harder for me to stay focused in front of a monitor for so many hours.鈥� [Jenny Hamel / ideastream]

The Biden administration has ordered states to administer standardized tests without penalizing any districts and currently, Ohio legislators are working out exactly what that will look like for Ohio鈥檚 students.

Pettiegrew said 鈥渟ome sort of鈥� testing will help gauge where students are academically, adding that the district is considering 鈥渆xtending the school year and going into a summer session鈥� in order to help students 鈥渕ake up for academic loss.鈥� 

When DeWine announced the April 1 deadline for districts to submit a plan for dealing with learning loss, he pointed to the results of standardized tests taken in the fall. Results from the most recent Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, taken in the fall, showed that nearly half of Ohio鈥檚 kindergartners were not on track academically.

Political science professor Vladimir Kogan and a team at Ohio State University analyzed all the results of the English Language Arts test taken by third graders in the fall. The team found that about 20,000 fewer children in Ohio had taken the test compared to the previous year, and that the pandemic鈥檚 disruption to learning is already having substantial impacts.

鈥淥n average, Ohio students in the third grade this year are performing about a third of a year behind students at the same time last year in third grade,鈥� Kogan told ideastream.

What鈥檚 even more concerning, according to Kogan, is that Black students suffered even steeper declines, with test results showing they are, on average, half a year behind 鈥� illustrating another way the pandemic has hit minorities hardest.

鈥淎nd so this is just exacerbating many of those inequalities and probably continuing exacerbating them because the impacts on student learning today will affect these students鈥� futures tomorrow. Their ability to go to college, their ability to get jobs,鈥� Kogan said. 鈥淪o in the long run, consequences could be really serious, which is why I think it鈥檚 so important to really focus on how do we make up lost ground. What are the remediation steps we鈥檙e going to take, as a state, to really try to address this?鈥�

But Kogan, like many educators, takes issue with the term 鈥榣earning loss,鈥� because of its implication that students are responsible for what hasn鈥檛 been learned during an incredibly chaotic time.

鈥淚 don't think educational loss is the way I would phrase it. I would phrase it the impact of these COVID disruptions on student learning,鈥� Kogan said.

This story is part of 鈥淟earning Curve,鈥� a statewide collaborative including ideastream looking at the challenges and opportunities facing public education in Ohio.